The kernel of Windows 2000--the current name for the next
release of Windows NT--will be updated next year to take the operating system
into consumer markets, Microsoft chief Bill Gates said here on Monday. Gates
demonstrated the upcoming operating system during his opening keynote this
morning at the Spring Comdex show and followed up with comments about Windows
2000 during the Microsoft Insider's Summit this afternoon.

Gates seemed to indicate that the company's Window NT and
Windows 98 lines are heading toward convergence. "We think it's a lot
better to have one kernel that we're focusing on," he said, adding that
"the next turn of the crank" in 18 to 24 months would find the OS
kernel updated for consumer use on PCs. Business migration has begun, he said,
with 40 percent of corporate desktops being purchased with Windows NT now. That
percentage is expected to rise with the release of Windows 2000.

The new OS is supposed to make systems management easier,
allowing information systems managers to decide which employees have access to
which software programs. The OS also is designed to enable managers to better
control bandwidth allocation. During the morning demonstration, the Microsoft
Windows 2000 team showed off the OS replication technology designed to
automatically update data every time a user logs on.

The OS Formerly Known as UNIXAsked "How do you really feel about the Linux threat to Windows
NT?" Gates responded without once mentioning Linux, talking instead about
UNIX, the base upon which Linux was built. "The thing that's always held
UNIX back is that there's variety," Gates said, noting that UNIX isn't
compatible with a wide variety of software applications and so that hampers the
OS. "Nonetheless," he added, "we definitely think of it as a form
of competition."

For those who want to know who Gates really sees as his
competition, he revealed that Microsoft's top competitor is, well, Microsoft's
installed base.

Coming: Speech, Handwriting RecognitionAs for the future of operating systems, Gates said that the OS of years to
come will be defined by its interface and those that will succeed will enable
speech and handwriting recognition, offer a unified file system and provide
system management, Gates said. Some Microsoft customers in the audience said
they have enough experience with the company to realize that they have to wait
for products to actually come out, rather than forming opinions based on what
remains vaporware.

Among those making such comments was Jim Nelson, an
information systems manager at Vector Technologies in Indianapolis. "I've
been using Microsoft products for years, but I want to see the stuff before I
make an opinion," Nelson said.